Springvale Saison

This is an attempt to take advantage of Phoenix's summer heat, both indoors and outdoors, by brewing a traditional farmhouse ale. The grist, aside from the sugar, is borrowed from my standard Kolsch recipe, to better allow a direct comparison of the different yeast and fermentation profile. This will be my first brew with the improved mill gap settings (credit card method), as well as my first ferment in a re-purposed 15.5 gallon Sanke keg.

Boil

Fermentation

Oxygenate 60 seconds with O2 and 2 micron air stone, and pitch thick yeast slurry. Ferment at room temperature, 82-87F this time of year, until terminal gravity is reached. Move to warmer area if necessary.

Readings

First runnings gravity

21.6 bx, 1.092 SG

Pre-boil gravity

1.062 SG

Pre-boil volume

11.8 gallons

Post-boil gravity

15.6 bx, 1.067 SG

Post-boil volume

10 gallons

Notes

My refractometer isn't functioning properly. Efficiency initially looked disastrous, but is actually quite good. All readings need to be double-checked against a hydrometer until a consistent correction factor for the refractometer can be determined. This problem may be weather related – the refractometer offers automatic temperature compensation (ATC), but the outside temperature today of 112F may be outside the ATC's limits.

The new method of heating the mash tun by overshooting the temperature, letting the heat stabilize, and then adding the grain made for a much more consistent mash temperature. Needs fine tuning, but it seems well worth the trade-off in time.

It's going to be tricky getting a sample from the Sanke keg, but necessary – Wyeast 3724 is notorious for stuck fermentations, and kegging a saison at 1.035 would be disastrous.